Kissimmee triple murder suspect had previous run in with law enforcement, documents show

Triple murder suspect was 'known' to Osceola officials

A man spoke to FOX 35 about his previous encounter with a suspect arrested in Osceola County on Saturday.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Ahmad Bojeh has just been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing three people in Kissimmee. The Osceola County Sheriff says it was premeditated, but that he did not know his victims, who were staying at a rental home while visiting from Ohio.

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2021 attempted murder case

Bojeh tried to kill someone in a premeditated murder once before, court records show.

Lutfulla Normatov was there. He said he walked inside a Wawa in April 2021 and heard gunshots.

"It is scary thing," Normatov said in an exclusive interview with FOX 35’s Marie Edinger. "It affected me emotionally, you know."

Normatov said he helped women and children hide inside a storage closet, and then went outside to help a man who was on the ground bleeding by the gas pumps.

"He shot nine times into my car," Normatov said. "He shot the guy like five times."

The man, incredibly, survived.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ahmad Bojeh for the attempted first-degree murder of that random stranger, plus aggravated battery for the damage to Normatov’s car, and two counts of criminal mischief. But in the end, Bojeh was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

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Acquitted by reason of insanity

Bojeh was acquitted on the charges after an insanity plea.

That’s an affirmative defense, meaning Bojeh and his attorney admit he committed the crime. However, the statute explains, because of a mental illness, he either didn’t understand the consequences or didn’t know what he did was wrong.

It’s a law Florida’s Attorney General told FOX 35 he wants changed.

Attempt to change the law

Attorney General Uthmeier wants a new law to require commitment to a mental institution instead of jail if you plead insanity.

"If there's risk of them harming others, we need to ensure they're locked up," the Attorney General said in a one-on-one interview with FOX 35’s Garrett Wymer.

The doctor evaluating Bojeh found at the time of that plea, he no longer met the criteria for involuntary commitment to a state mental institution, which requires a "substantial likelihood the defendant will inflict serious bodily harm on himself or another person."

"At the end of the day, we need dangerous people, we need murderers, we need violent offenders locked up and away from our children, away from society as long as possible," Uthmeier said.

What they're saying:

It took Normatov a while to recover after Bojeh’s attack.

"I sold my company because I couldn't handle it, you know," he said, elaborating on the stress and anxiety he felt after the shooting. "It took me like six months to become myself."

He tried to disconnect. He didn’t know about Bojeh’s insanity plea until Edinger told him.

And he didn’t know Bojeh was out of jail until he saw him on the news, accused of killing three men in cold blood. He said he could have guessed it might happen again.

"The person shoots once in public," he said. "He's gonna shoot again."

Bojeh's criminal history

Bojeh does have some other criminal charges over the years.

He stole some clothes from a Macy’s in 2019.

In 2015, he served a few days in jail and got a year and a half of probation for drug charges, after Osceola County deputies tracked stolen goods to his house.

In that arrest report, the deputy wrote he was already familiar with Bojeh, who was 18 at the time, because he was a suspect in a rash of burglaries within walking distance of his house, and was already on probation for drug charges.